How to Add a New Driver

The University is required by law to enroll employees with certain responsibilities in a drug and alcohol testing pool. Those responsibilities include the requirement to carry a Class D License (CDL), as well as driving a vehicle that meets any of the following qualifications:

A gross vehicle weight rating or gross combination weight rating of 26,001 or more lbs., or

The capacity to carry 16 or more passengers—including the driver, or

Any size that is used to transport hazardous material that require the vehicle to placarded

Supervisors should contact Occupational Health, at uohs@umn.edu or (612) 626-5008 to add employees and schedule a pre-employment drug test. Supervisors must also ensure that applicants/new employees fill out the paperwork below.

Required Forms and Information

New hires and current employees of the University whose job duties change to include driving functions for a DOT-covered position at the University must submit the following paperwork to University Health and Safety–Occupational Health (UHS-OH) before beginning safety-sensitive functions. Such functions include (but are not limited to) waiting to be dispatched, inspecting or servicing any commercial motor vehicle, and loading or unloading a vehicle.

Reasonable Suspicion Testing

The University requires an employee to submit to "reasonable suspicion" drug and/or alcohol testing when a supervisor has reason to believe that an employee has engaged in prohibited conduct. Only a supervisor or University official trained in compliance with FMCSA rules and regulations can determine that an employee should be tested.

Reasonable suspicion means a belief that a driver has violated alcohol or controlled substances prohibitions, based on specific, contemporaneous, documentable observations concerning the appearance, behavior, speech, or body odors of that driver. In the case of controlled substances, the observations may include indicators of the chronic and withdrawal effects of controlled substances.